Resources in diet, nutrition, and epigenetics

Epigenetics studies inheritable changes in gene expression and function that occur in the absence of modification in the DNA sequence. In other words, this represents stable phenotypic changes which occur without genomic changes. Epigenetics is still developing as a science. It was only in 2008 that an operational definition of an epigenetics was described in a consensus document by experts at a meeting on chromatin-based epigenetics. Since then there has been an explosion in the knowledge and understanding of epigenetics. It is now difficult even for experienced scientists to remain up-to-date. For those new to the field, it is difficult to know which of the myriad of available sources are reliable. To further aid colleagues who are interested in understanding more about epigenetics, we have therefore produced tables containing reliable, up-to-date resources on epigenetics in this chapter. The experts who assisted with the compilation of these tables of resources are acknowledged below.